Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle

Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle

Starring John Cho, Kal Penn, Paula Garces, Neil Patrick Harris

Directed by Danny Leiner

The old saying goes, "life is about the journey, not the destination," and Hollywood has capitalized on that in countless films where we see our heroes traversing a wide array of hardships and struggles to reach their destination, and find themselves changed not by their arrival, but how they got there.  An epic hero's journey that transforms our heroes from the inside out, and proves that they'll never be the same after the experience.  While this works obviously on the grand scale of epic blockbusters, it also works in the simplistic raunchy comedy "Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle," showing two stoners who embark on their own epic quest and find themselves changed along the way.

Harold Lee (John Cho) is a Korean-American who works in investment banking, and is clearly a pushover.  He does whatever his jerk boss wants, and never finds the nerve to talk to his attractive neighbor Maria (Paula Garces) whom he has a crush on.  On the flip side there's his rooomate and best friend Kumar Patel (Kal Penn), an Indian-American whose family wants him to be a doctor, but he instead spends his time partying, smoking, and living life to the fullest.

On one particular night after getting high, the two desire munchies, and a commercial for White Castle conveniently appears on screen, and the two decide that they crave the small hamburgers they're best known for.  Believing there's a restaurant closeby, they head there only to discover it's been gone for years, and the nearest one is forty five minutes away - but time is not a factor for these burger-hungry friends, and their adventure turns into a series of unfortunate but hilarious events involving becoming surgeons, running afoul of a group of moronic extreme sport chasers, being picked up by a creepy man, and having their car stolen by Neil Patrick Harris (Neil Patrick Harris) - but nothing will stop them from getting to their destination, and along the way they learn more about themselves and their friendship.

While the film doesn't really offer anything deeply insightful, "Harold & Kumar" does perfect the buddy road trip comedy in a way that's endearing and absolutely hilarious.  Kal Penn and John Cho have great chemistry, and the two work off one another brilliantly - the modern day "Odd Couple," with Cho's Harold being stiff and shy, while Penn's Kumar being outspoken and brazen, they have the perfect energy to work off of.  Both characters are endearing and easily lovable, and both are guys you would really want as your own friends, which makes their offbeat adventure story so entertaining  It's also a testament to both actors that they performed so well that even today (sixteen years after its release) they both have had huge impacts not just on cinema but the world as well - with Cho starring in the reboot "Star Trek" franchise as well as the suspenseful "Searching," while Penn went on to become President Barack Obama's liaison with the Asian-American and Pacific Islander communities.

Sure, there's the typical misadventures you'd find, but also surprisingly heartfelt moments between the two friends, the struggles they face, and the prejudices they come into contact with - along with the laugh-out-loud moments that come in spades.  Whether the friends are trying to avoid a douchebag gang of wannabe sports enthusiasts, or trying to survive a night with a creepily deformed man and his oddly attractive wife, or trying to ride a cheetah, there's hardly a moment where you won't find yourself laughing and enjoying yourself, even sober.

Yet its also through this adventure that the two friends learn more about themselves.  Harold knows he's a pushover, and desires to be more forceful and determined, while Kumar knows he's a slacker, and desires to be something more than that.  Each moment the friends face seem to reinforce their desires, and it becomes more about their trek than the small greasy burgers they wish to enjoy.

The film also includes a stacked supporting cast of comedic geniuses, including Ryan Reynolds as an OR nurse, Christopher Meloni as a backwoods car mechanic with bubbling boils on his skin, Malin Akerman as his surprisingly stunning and promiscuous wife, Anthony Anderson as a Burger Shack employee who suddenly pines for White Castle himself, and Fred Willard as the stiff medical school dean that Kumar applied for.  Yet the most obvious standout supporting performance came from Neil Patrick Harris, who played a fictionalized version of himself, which helped re-catapult his career from his child-actor "Doogie Houser" days to being cast as the iconic Barney Stinson on "How I Met Your Mother" after appearing in this film.  In his brief time, Harris stole the show (and eventually the car), and cemented his place in the "Supporting Character Who Upstages the Lead" club.

With brilliant casting, a surprisingly thoughtful script, and wacky laugh-out-loud missteps, "Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle" easily became an instant classic, a true comedy that can be enjoyed time and again.

The Score: A+